Meet steve matlock of la-z-boy
Tell us about yourself and your organization?
I am Steve Matlock, the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for La-Z-Boy, the number one brand in the home furnishing business. We are a $2 billion company doing business as a manufacturer of upholstered furniture, an importer, and a retailer. I started my career with La-Z-Boy as a sales representative, after finishing school in 1973. La-Z-Boy Residential has 140 independent representatives focused on delivering a consultative service to every La-Z-Boy dealer in their respective territory. Each representative is highly trained and motivated to grow their individual business. We also have over 340 La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores that sell La-Z-Boy products exclusively, and are located in every major market in North America. We have developed a young, passionate, and aggressive sales and marketing team to lead the representative and dealer organization in all aspects of the furniture business. Our purpose is to Cultivate Growth, and our vision is Passionate Leaders Advancing Comfort Everywhere. We are creating the best P.L.A.C.E. to work in the furniture business.
How did you and your organization get introduced to Rapport Leadership International?
Steve Hueftle, owner of the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries in Las Vegas encouraged me to go and the rest is history. We have adopted Rapport as our leadership and communication training partner.
How many graduates of any Rapport class does your organization have?
La-Z-Boy has sent over a thousand people to many of the Rapport classes. We participate in all of Rapport’s intensive training classes, custom performance training classes, and Rapport is now a part of our Furniture Galleries Excellence Corporate University. Rapport has customized a class for all of our field representatives, dealers, and managers called “Coaching in the Game.” This class teaches our team Rapport’s “Feedback Model,” and is being rolled out throughout the United States and Canada.
Tell us about your Rapport experience and how Rapport training impacted you personally?
I am a proud Rapport Master Grad and have worked very closely with Michael Saletta to develop a number of La-Z-Boy custom performance training classes. I love everything Rapport stands for and teaches. My wife, children and most of my friends have attended Rapport Leadership classes to improve their lives, family, businesses, and community.
How has Rapport training impacted your business?
Leadership, communication, and accountability are all attributes that Rapport has helped me and our business develop. We have also experienced improved focus and teamwork. Our results have been on many levels, including an improved business culture, increase in sales revenues, improved close ratios, and an increase in average tickets.
I was fortunate to have run one of the largest sales territories in the industry prior to being hired as the senior sales and marketing executive at La-Z-Boy. I owe a lot of the education necessary to lead the La-Z-Boy high performance team to Rapport.
How do you keep Rapport training alive in your organization?
We strongly recommend that every management person, field representative, and dealer participate in all Rapport Leadership classes. We have partnered specifically with Michael Saletta, Rapport’s CEO, to design and develop custom classes and facilitate training in leadership and communication at all levels of the company. We continue to execute the Feedback “Fish Bowl” at every one of our Sales and Marketing meetings. We find ways to reinforce the language, models, and exercises at our meetings. JFDI (Just Focus and Do It) continues to be a strong anchor in our team.
Which class had the greatest impact on you and why?
All the classes have added their own importance - Leadership Breakthrough Two is a blast because of the camaraderie, support, and team consensus experienced through learned collaboration skills.
When you face a challenge in your organization, what tools from the training do you draw on first?
Rapport’s Performance Aligned Leadership Model (P.A.L.M.) and their Feedback Model have both been very important tools used in developing the La-Z-Boy high performance team.
